SCSU professor spent years improving literacy for African tribe

Ettien Koffi, an English and foreign language professor at St. Cloud State University, has been working since 1991 on a written version of the Anyi language.(Photo: Jun-Kai Teoh, jteoh@stcloudtimes.com)Buy Photo

When St. Cloud's Ettien Koffi set out to make a difference for his home village in the early 1980s, he had no idea how influential his ambition would be.

Koffi, now a professor at St. Cloud State University, wanted to create a written language for the Anyi, a tribe he grew up in and one that never had a written version of the words members spoke. Koffi believed that promoting literacy would mean socioeconomic growth for areas that struggled to connect with more-literate regions.

"If we want to change the situation of people in rural Africa, we need to bring literacy to them. There is no other way around it. If we don't bring literacy to them, the hope of development will not take place," Koffi said. "Current knowledge is in the minds of the people. It is only in their heads. When an older person who has accumulated that knowledge dies, it is gone. … All the knowledge that he or she had in their own mind is gone. What literacy does is it changes the dynamics."

The Anyi weren't alone. There are more than 2,000 languages spoken in Africa, and Koffi notes that close to a third of them are strictly verbal. To combat that statistic, the Anyi Literacy Project was born.

Anyi is spoken mainly in Ivory Coast and western Ghana. There are 60 languages prevalent in Ivory Coast, but French is the official language, Koffi said. He said no other languages are taught in the schools.

"I am convinced that literacy and development ... if it takes place in your own language, has a better chance of succeeding," Koffi said.

Phonetic basis

To come up with a written language for the Anyi, Koffi followed the map laid out by the International Phonetic Association. Based on guidelines from the IPA, Koffi assigned characters to the language's spoken sounds. Piece by piece, he's worked for more than 20 years to lay down a written foundation for the Anyi.

"It's a remarkable task, but Dr. Koffi is a very gifted person," said Sartell's Robyn Zander, who's known Koffi for more than 10 years. "You have to have a unique person to be able to understand the culture. He's like the one person in the whole world that could do this for (the Anyi)."

Koffi began translating the Bible's New Testament to Anyi in 1991, and he completed a first draft in 2010. Koffi decided on a church-based literacy program because using religion to teach literacy is a time-tested method, he said.

"Historically, the church has had such a powerful and strong methodology for introducing literacy. It is a method that works. … As our society's becoming more and more secularized, we do not see that method that has worked over hundreds of years used."

He also wants to create other materials aimed at informing people about everyday issues such as topics related to health and food.

"If we have the funding, we will be translating those materials that have already been published in French, and we will be writing them in Anyi and French to release it to the people and increase their knowledge," he said.

Branching out

The Anyi literacy project is funded by Koffi, his wife, friends and various churches. Eventually the goal is to find 1,000 Anyi speakers who will contribute $25 a year to support the project. Until then, the group depends heavily on other donations.

"Nobody is in this thing for money," Koffi said.

He was quick to note that part of what makes the program successful is making it financially beneficial for literacy teachers. "When we tried the volunteer thing, it didn't work. When the harvesting season comes, people would leave the program."

So Koffi made an effort to match what people made harvesting crops and to work around their schedules. When major holidays or events came around, Koffi scheduled teaching sessions beforehand so people had incentive to stay with the program.

From 2001-03, Koffi's literacy campaign didn't stretch beyond his former village. Slowly his efforts began to build an audience. By 2007, five villages and an average of more than 200 people were enrolled in sessions. In 2014, that number swelled to 2,436 people.

The program has 51 literacy teachers in classrooms throughout as many villages. It cost about $1,000 a year to have a literacy class in a village. Many villages have three sessions a year. Half of that cost goes straight to the teachers, Koffi said.

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Koffi has helped translate and publish various works in the Anyi language throughout the years.
(Photo:
Jun-Kai Teoh, jteoh@stcloudtimes.com
)

Growth spurt

Koffi attributes the program's current success to a 2008 visit made by a group from St. Cloud's Westwood Church.

"Before 2008, the highest number (of people enrolled) was 397, and we were in five villages. We went with Westwood Church in 2008, and the growth has been exponential. I do not know how to really explain it," he said.

Koffi believes that seeing strangers come so far solidified the idea. There was excitement from people on both sides surrounding the visit.

"I was excited, not only because of the opportunity to help those people develop their own understanding of their own language ... but obviously as a church pastor I was excited about being able to help people experience Scripture," said Steve Schoepf, lead pastor at Westwood. "I noticed how enthusiastic the people were for what he was doing; we got to do it firsthand. ... It just brought a fresh vitality and enthusiasm to the community."

Zander, who studied linguistics at St. Cloud State, said visiting Africa and seeing the respect students had for educators was surreal.

"It was a thrill just to see their bright faces and their eagerness. ... It was just genuine appreciation and hospitality, and it's unsurpassed. I was very humbled by the experience," she said. "I got to observe some of the pilot classrooms and the adult students who were learning. These adults ... they were so in tune with that teacher."

She added: "I was just so impressed with the way Dr. Koffi had established these teaching methods."

Moving forward

Koffi's work already has yielded seven Anyi-language publications, and he hopes to have an Anyi-language New Testament published in the next two or three years. But instead of being satisfied with goals accomplished, Koffi says there's more work to be done.

"It is my goal that by the time the New Testament is finished and in the hands of people, I'd like to have 5,000 people that know how to read and write. … Experts have found that if you have 5,000 people in a community that know how to read or write, it is quite unlikely that that group will revert back to illiteracy," Koffi said.

Koffi estimates that right now the number of literate people in Ivory Coast Anyi communities totals about 3,000 people. That tally is a far cry from where Koffi started, but Zander believes it's nowhere near where things have a potential to go.

"This is opening up a whole world of opportunities for people in the Ivory Coast. ... They are going to benefit in future generations because of one man's efforts," Zander said. "There is a modeling being done by Dr. Koffi that I hope will inspire other linguists, people and groups. I hope that he makes a difference to future generations."